The Two-Way

1:58 pm

Tue July 10, 2012

Is Kim Jong Un's Mystery Woman The 'Excellent Horse-Like Lady?'

In this photo released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and distributed in Tokyo by the Korea News Service on Monday, July 9, 2012, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and a woman clap with others on Friday as they watch a performance by North Korea's new Moranbong band in Pyongyang. Observers think she is Hyon Song-wol.

AP

It seems that North Korea's young leader may have reconnected with an old love.

The reporting from Asia about that "mystery woman" who's been seen with Kim Jong Un in recent weeks is turning up details that sound like they're right out of good old American soap opera.

-- The consensus seems to be that she is Hyon Song-wol, "former vocalist of the Bochonbo Electronic Music BandBochonbo Electronic Music Band." The band's biggest hit: Excellent Horse-Like Lady, from 2005.

-- Hyon and Kim first "became romantically attached" about a decade ago.

-- But Kim's father, the now-deceased Kim Jong Il, ordered his son to break off the affair. It's thought that the older man may not have thought she was a good match for the son he was grooming to be the next leader.

-- Hyon disappeared from public view in 2006, and reportedly married a North Korean Army officer, with whom she's had at least one child. As recently as this past March, she was "heavily pregnant."

-- But with Kim Jong Il's death last December, "his youngest son is thought to have rekindled the relationship."

Excellent Horse-Like Lady, by the way, wasn't the Bochonbo Electronic Music Band's only crowd-pleaser. According to The Telegraph, its other hits included Footsteps of Soldiers, I Love Pyongyang, She is a Discharged Soldier and We are Troops of the Party.

We don't happen to have any of those songs on our playlists. And the usually reliable NPR Music site is no help to us on this one. Has anyone ever heard Hyon's band?